Electric clothes drier



Feb. 8, 1949. A. J. FoLLl 2,461,318

ELEGTRIC CLOTHES DRIER Filed. April 8, 1946 Patented Feb. 8, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ELECTRIC CLOTHES DRIER Arthur J. Folli, Chicago, lll.

Application April 8, 1946, Serial No. 660,437

6 Claims. 1

The invention consists in the combinations and Y arrangements of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

The invention will be best understood by reierence to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification and in which Figure 1 is a top plan view of such a device embodying the invention and as arranged for use:

Figure 2 is a front view having apart of the housing broken away to illustrate the arrangel ment of parts within, and

Figure 3 is an enlarged section taken on line 3--3 of Figure2.

The embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawings comprises a suitable housing I of hollow construction, having walls of substantially even thickness, and provided at its back with a rearwardly extending T headed bracket II adapted to be attached by ordinary means to a wall or the like in a convenient place for use.

Inwardly of the bracket II is an inwardly projecting arm I2 adapted to support an electric motor I3` in vertical position carrying on the upper end of its rotor shaft I4 a three-bladed blower fan I5 arranged and adapted to draw air through a plurality of slotted openings IB located in the top of the housing I0 and to discharge such air horizontally within said housing I0. The blower fan I5 is arranged in a suitable recess Il which communicates with recesses I8 opening downwardly on each side of said recess Il. Ar-

ranged within the recesses I8 are centrally sus-` pended heating elements I9 comprising a cylindrical body 20 having a conical shaped base 2I unitarily constructed of a dielectric heat resisting material and provided on its surface with a helically wound resistance wire 22. The heating elements I9 are attached to the housing I 0 by suitable screws 23 mounted in threaded openings in the upper end of cylindrical bodies 20.

The housing I0 is provided with a downwardly and outwardly extending skirt 2d beneath which articles to be dried are placed. To facilitate the placing of a number of articles at the same time a pair oi parallel spaced rods 25 connected at their opposite en'ds to downwardly and outwardly projecting inverted V shaped brackets 26 attached as shown to the ends 21 of the skirt 2l. The rods 25 are provided with a plurality of slidable clamps 28. The clamps 28 are substantially the same as the conventional clothes pin of that type with the exception of the clamp arm 29 which is provided at its outer end with a hole 3l for mounting on the rods 25, as best shown in Figures 2 and 3.

The device is operated by electricity from the usual house current carried through the electric cord 3I which in turn is carried to the motor I3 and the heating elements I9 by the usual system of wiring (not shown) for connecting such combinations, as will be readily understood.

AWhen the device is in use, air is drawn in through the slotted openings I6 by the blower I5 it is divided into two streams and forced through the recesses I 8 contacting the heating elements I9 and discharged through the converging recesses I8 thereby creating a zone of swirling heated air immediately below the housing` I0 and against the articles suspended from the rods 25, as will be readily understood.

While I have illustrated and described a preferred form of construction for setting forth the arrangement of part's of my invention, I do not wish to be limited by the precise details thereof but desire to avail myself of such variations and modications as may fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

l. An electric dryer of the class described comprising a housing having a chamber in its uppermost portion; a fan arranged horizontally within said chamber; a grille formed in said housing above said fan for the admission of air; an electric motor mounted within said housing below said fan chamber and operably connected to said fan; side air .passageways on opposite sides of said fan chamber and communicating therewith; vertical air passages extending downwardly from said side air passageways; an inverted cup air'l space communicating with both of said vertical air passageways; air heating element arranged in each of said Vertical passagways; and clothes supporting means arranged below said housing in spaced relation thereto in the path of air discharged from said housing.

2. The construction specified in claim 1 in which the fan and fan chamber are of a centrifugal type having an air intake at one side and a tangential discharge at opposite sides oi said tan chamber.

3. The construction speciiled in claim 1 in which the heating elements are suspended in vertical air passageways.

4. 'I'he construction specified in claim 1 in which the heating element supports are provided with enlarged outer ends arranged and adapted to create divergent air currents.

5. The construction speciiled in claim 1 in which the heating element supports are suspendedwithin a vertical air passageway from said housing.

6. A dryer of the class described comprising a housing open at its bottom and provided at its top with an air intake opening; a centrifugal blower arranged horizontally adjacent said opening; divergent air passageways receiving air from said blower; tortuous passageways for conveying air downwardly within said housing; heating elements arranged within said passageways; means for diverging the flow of air horizontally at the place of discharge; and clothes holding means 5 arranged within circulating range of air discharged from said blower.

' ARTHUR- J. FOLLI.

BCES CITED w The following references are of record in the Number Name Date l5 1,579,513 Cameron Apr. 6, 1926 1,833,631 Wilsey Nov. 24, 1931 1,981,179 Tinkham June 5, 1934 2,203,215 Du Bois r June 4, 1940 

